Dropzone Patch Notes: 2301

Gameplay Notes

New Rig/Gear Leveling System

To bridge the gap between 1v1 and 3v3 play styles we have made a comprehensive overhaul to the way players use their level-up points for upgrading:

1v1 and 3v3 will now use the same rule set

Players can now reach Squad level 15 in all game modes

Rigs no longer have a personal upgrade level, but share the total Squad level

Respawn times are now tied to the Squad level, starting at 30s and scaling to 50s

When you gain a squad level you get one point to spend on each rig you control

Points are spent on the individual active gears of each rig, instead of the rig as a whole

ALT + 1, 2, 3 are still viable shortcuts for quick upgrading, but now follows a lowest-to-highest, left-to-right upgrade order

ALT + Q, W, E are additional shortcuts added to quick upgrade the specific gear slot you want to put a level-up point into

Each gears’ unlock level determines how many points are spent in that gear slot to unlock it

Each gear slot, locked or unlocked, provides stat bonuses per upgrade, as seen by a “[STAT] UP!” bubble text above the Command Grid. Spending points on gears that are already unlocked provides extra stat bonuses of that slot:

Weapon Slot = DPS

DPS used to scale with rig level, but now scales with points spent in the Weapon slot

Body Slot = HP

HP used to scale with rig level, but now scales with points spent in the Body slot

Utility Slot = SPD

SPD did not previously scale with rig level, but now scales with points spent in the Utility slot, making rigs faster than ever before

All Special Moves unlock at Squad Level 10

All software is unlocked at level 1 and level scaling has been removed

All software has been reworked to adjust for this change. Please see details below in the Gear Changes section

This is a huge shift in the way we want players to approach their strategy before and during the battle

This change puts focus on the gear itself, when to unlock it and why, and this puts focus on what kind of stat buff you want to put into your rigs as you play, depending on the changing needs of the battle

We understand this is a huge difference from the way Dropzone has normally been played and we look forward to all your feedback on this new style of upgrading

3v3 Ranked

3v3 Ranked now allows parties to match with parties/non-parties of different sizes

Any combination totaling no more than 6 players will properly match, except for three parties of 2, as we do not want to divide up a party to complete a match

Inspection Window

Players can now left-click on any Kavash, friendly/enemy rig, or summoned unit to see all statistical information for that unit, including but not limited to HP, Armor, and buff/de-buff statuses

This information is only updated if the player has vision of the unit that is clicked on. Old information will persist if the selection is on a unit that is out of vision

Left-clicking anywhere else on the map will close the Inspection Window

Onboarding missions have been slightly reworked to account for the new leveling system

Pilot Changes

Cortex:

General Vex:

Default Propulsion SW has been changed from Velocity Ramp to Turbo Pistons

Gear Changes

Combat Rush

Auto-attack damage bonus switched to 2% per stack rather than a flat damage bonus

Frag Rounds

Increased the explosion damage from 35 to 50 to be a little more competitive w/ Inferno Rounds

Plated Conduits

Armor from +5 to +3

Radar Mapping

Removed scaling, base sight range bonus from +15 to +30

Resolute Stand

HP Regen increased from 2.5% to 3.5%

Logic Rerouter

Lowered base CD from 40s to 30s and removed scaling

Linked Sensors

Base sight range bonus from 10m to 15m

Isolation Suite

Increased bonus armor vs Kavash from +7 to +9, removed HP bonus

Robust Circuits

Removed scaling. Now grants a flat +150 HP bonus

Heart of the Pack

Now triggers on Rig/Hive/Alpha/Boss kills rather than just Alpha kills

Velocity Ramp

Now grants bonus speed when there are no other rigs nearby

Reinforced Circuits

Now grants the Rig bonus armor when it is at or below 33% health

Satellite Network

Grants the Rig vision of Cores on the ground

Intelligence Grid

Grants the Rig temporary vision of a random enemy Rig every 15s

Emissive Controller

Now grants a permanent +SPD bonus on Rig/Hive/Alpha/Boss kills, similar to Amoeba Protocol

Miscellaneous Notes

Two additional “First Time Ever” penalty tiers have been added

First offense ever gives you a message warning you that repeated offenses will increase your penalty

Second offense ever gives you a 2-minute queue penalty

Once these are both triggered all future offenses will be met with the already known Daily penalty tier

Holding down ALT when viewing a gear card will expand it to a more robust informational mode

The Test Loadout Sandbox now has a Jump Pad and an Uplink. Alpha position has been shifted

Game Action Updates field no longer displays level-up or uplink complete statuses

Metin 2 Promotional tab has been removed for all players who did not achieve level 10 before the promotion had completed

Gear card backgrounds are now more opaque, for ease of reading

Quickmatch checkboxes and labels now have a larger hit area, making them easier to click

Some additional hover-over SFX have been added to the Masteries page

The Boss power-up icon and Boss buff FX have been visually updated

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue where party members were seeing their local game mode and region selection instead of the game mode and region selected by the party member who initiated the match seek

Fixed issue where an AI-controlled Pandora would use Litany of Plagues on her own friendly summoned units

Fixed an issue where the attack range of Plutus’ Lapse Generator was 17.5m instead of 20m, like normal Lapse Generator

Fixed an issue where the Sniper’s walk animation failed to loop after rig was stunned

Fixed an issue where the Health pickup in Emergency Evac did not loop its animation properly

Fixed an issue where the minimap's camera-view trapezoid on Styx was missing its bottom line

Fixed an error message that would appear when attempting to seek a match while partying with a player that was under a seeking penalty

Fixed an issue where Snipers transforming from Flight to Walk mode while hovering over a Jump Pad would not burn their transformation cooldown

Fixed an issue where the Jump Pads in STYX would play their launch SFX twice

Fixed an issue where in-game music would randomly stop and not play the next track

Fixed an issue where Kavash health bars at full health were not showing slagged status

Fixed an issue where the hover-text for Alpha Strike was stating the objective was worth 2 points instead of the normal 4

Fixed an issue where the 3rd player of a team was not getting proper visual feedback when calling or participating in a Surrender vote

Fixed an issue where Custom Lobby members would still appear in the lobby if they ALT-F4ed out of the game

Fixed an issue were it was possible to start Custom Lobby game with an offline player in the lobby

Fixed an issue where creating a Custom Lobby, then clicking Exit Game did not destroy the lobby

Fixed an issue where the Landfall SFX would play twice if Landfall was interrupted just before it took off

Fixed an issue where no artwork or scenario name was displayed for the loading screen if you clicked Retry for Emergency Evac I

Fixed an issue where changing your Player icon did not immediately update for the Match Rewards screen

Fixed an issue where the ambient SFX for STYX would still play even if Dropzone was not the top window

Minor localization fixes

Known Issues

AVG antivirus software may incorrectly flag the Dropzone client as malicious. We have reached out to them to whitelist the client. In the meantime, you should be able to manually allow your antivirus software to allow the Dropzone client to run

There are known issues with words bleeding outside of their bounding boxes for every language other than English. Fixes are on the way

Locking Observer slots in Custom Matches only works when both slots are empty

The Private Match setting only works when the game is already created, so someone can join in-between

Hive Link does not have a cast ring around hives to show where the ability can be cast

Global Chat does not reflect your changed name until you have restarted the game

Due to the new leveling system, older replays will be using observer information that is out of date. A replay wipe will be in the near future, so we suggest video capturing any replays you would like to save

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